Celestia's Nightmare CHAPTER 3
by ScarlettScribe
Summary: Luna follows the mysterious cloaked pony into the Everfree Forest, leaving her kingdom unguarded. Who is this hooded pony and what is it doing? And finally Celestia makes her first devious move.


**Chapter 3**

The hooded pony made its way through The Everfree Forest carefully, side stepping the blue poison joke (a terrible flower that has a varied affect on ponies, but all horrible. Luna also dodged the gathers of them on the floor.)

Just then Luna accidentally kicked a small rock as she walked and it clanged loudly against her blue horse shoe. She froze silently and cursed herself for not removing the shoes before entering the forest.

But though Luna wished for silence, the hooded figure had already heard her and suddenly a blast of power shot in all directions around her, "COME OUT!" shouted the mystery pony in a low voice.

That shot was magic, Luna realised, so she was dealing with a culprit who was a unicorn, and a rather powerful one judged by the strong blast it had given off.

She figured that if she stayed quiet any longer there was a high chance that the next shot could hit her, and maybe the unicorn would give in as soon as it realised that the pony following it was a princess, so she thought she may as well reveal herself. Anyway, if the pony attacked, Luna was confident that her alicorn magic could defeat her foe.

She stepped out from behind the trees and said strongly, "I am Princess Luna, Princess of the Night. I was investigating you because I have reason to believe that you are committing crimes. Now remove your hood and reveal yourself, or I will have to do it for you." Luna lent forwards, aiming her horn at the pony to intimidate them.

"Princess Luna?" asked the unicorn in a voice mixed with relief and happiness, but it quickly returned to its defensive state, "I can't, Princess Celestia instructed me not to make my whereabouts or identification known to anypony. This is a direct order from the Princess, I can't reveal myself,"

"Celestia?" Luna sighed; she was getting tired of her sister's lies and secrecy, "well, this is a direct order from Princess Luna. _Princess_ Luna. Yes, in case you hadn't noticed there are two Princesses' in Equestria, not just Celestia. Now remove the cloak!"

The unicorn grumbled before reluctantly peeling back its hood. Out of the cloak came a grey coloured unicorn in blue starry robes and a long white beard: Star Swirl the Bearded.

Luna was taken aback; Star Swirl was a good friend of hers, maybe her only real friend. Luna didn't socialise much with other ponies as they all slept during the night, but she didn't mind this, Luna liked creating the cool night to protect and conceal her subjects. Luna had first encountered Star Swirl when he was a filly, he had just became Celestia's student and met Luna because he often studied through the night in The Canterlot Libraries. It was strange and quite hurtful for Luna to think that Celestia would have sent Star Swirl on some errand without consulting her first, she knew how much she cared for her friends.

"Star Swirl? What are you doing here in the middle of the night?!" Luna asked in surprise, "You are meant to be in Canterlot, not running around in The Everfree Forest! _What is going on?"_

"I'm sorry for the minor deception, Your Majesty," Star Swirl replied, "but I'm on an important task set by your sister. I have to collect a herb..."

"Oh," Luna interrupted, rolling her eyes and wondering why her friend was calling her 'majesty' for the first time in years, "_that_ herb. That ever so important herb that nopony will enlighten me about,"

"Um, yes," Star Swirl muttered, "that herb,"

"But I thought Celestia only sent that one guard, why has she sent you to search for it too?" Luna pondered, "She seemed very serious about only sending one pony,"

"It was decided that that guard could not handle the responsibility, Your Highness," Star Swirl answered, "so I was sent as a replacement,"

"And naturally I wasn't informed. And call me Luna, what is wrong with you?" she replied, "But tell me, Star Swirl, as Celestia's student you must be close to her, are you not? So has the Princess seemed...different lately, in your opinion?"

"I do not think so, Princess," Star Swirl replied cautiously, "but please, you must allow me to track down this herb now, you do realise the importance of it?"

"Yes, I understand that it has magical properties and can help locate lost things," Princess Luna said, "and if you know this too then you know you shouldn't be out on your own in the night,"

"Princess, please," Star Swirl sighed desperately, "if you know this too, then shouldn't you be watching over your subjects?"

And for the first time since Star Swirl the Bearded had revealed himself, Luna remembered her subjects that she had sworn to protect and keep a watchful eye out for during her now haunted night.

"Oh my gosh, you're right," Luna gasped in mild panic, she started flying into the air and through the thick canopy of Everfree trees, "I'll talk with Celestia tomorrow. Be careful."

As soon as she exited The Everfree Forest once again wished him well, in both his task to find his herb and his task in spending time with her sister. Celestia never got to know Star Swirl, she was only interested in his magical power as a filly and had been teaching him since then, so why would she send a pony she hardly knew on such a high profile assignment? And thinking about it, why did Celestia get to train a successor and she didn't? Luna couldn't help but feel that Equestria itself only wanted one Princess, and that it had pre-decided on Princess Celestia.

As Luna glided down towards the balcony of Canterlot Castle she saw her sister waiting for her, impatiently tapping her hoof.

"_Where have you been?"_ she asked angrily, "there's been another ponynapping, if you even care. Seriously Luna, you _said_ that you would keep an eye out, you promised! And then you disappear and turn up hours later, it's even past dawn time!"

Luna felt her chest turn hollow, "another ponynapping?" she repeated,

"And you wonder why I keep these things from you," Celestia muttered just loud enough for Luna to hear as she turned her back to her sister,

"I was in..." Luna started to say but something caught her eye to her left,

"_Luna."_ Celestia said sharply and with a hint of anxiety, recapturing Luna's attention, "Luna, don't you realise how serious this is?"

"Did you see that...?" Luna asked quietly as she turned to face her left,

"Luna I'm speaking to you!" Celestia squeaked awkwardly,

Was that a pony behind that house? Or two? Or was it just shadows?

"I think that's..." Luna began but Celestia quickly grabbed her sister and dragged her back to face her.

"LUNA!" she shouted angrily, but her eyes were filled with fear. No, not quite fear. Panic.

And suddenly yes! There it was! Luna could see out of her peripheral vision a pony carrying another pony on its back!

"Celestia! That's the ponynap-..." but Princess Luna couldn't finish her sentence as a sharp headbutt from Celestia rendered her unconscious.

"I'm so sorry, sister."


End file.
